Chapter 2: The Implications of Piaget and Vygotsky's Theories for Teachers

by April

While I was reading about the two theories presented by Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky I realized that there were actual theories behind the work I did at the preschool. I can look back and see a lot of Piaget's influence, and some of Vygotsky's.

I'm specifically interested in Piaget's idea that the child is the little scientist who explores his/her world and discover things and constructs his/her own meanings without the assistance of anyone more knowledgeable. An example I'm thinking of from teaching preschool is considering what kinds of things float or don't float. If I'm understanding correctly, in Piaget's model, the best way for children to learn would be to give them water and a variety of floating or non-floating materials and let them explore and discover on their own what happens. To understand their thinking we watch and listen without providing any information. At the preschool level this may or may not be enough. But it seems to me that at the primary level (which is what I'm most concerned with), some teacher guidance would be helpful for learning, which I believe is where Vygotsky comes in.

On page 48-49 it says, "Children cannot and should not be expected to reinvent or rediscover knowledge already available in their cultures. Rather they should be guided and assisted in their learning." I definitely think that interacting with adults or peers who are more knowledgeable regarding a subject is an important part of learning.

It seems to me that providing children with opportunities to interact with materials and respond to them while being guided by a teacher puts the responsibility for teaching and learning on both students and teachers.

I'm interested in the idea of teaching in the "magic middle," providing instruction that doesn't cause boredom or frustration. Of course not every student is going to have the same "magic middle" so some creativity would be necessary to reach all learners. I did really like the idea of using differentiated learning; specifically of introducing a topic to a group and then providing activity cards that give children choices (at varying levels) for follow-up activities.

There was a comment on page 49 about students benefiting from working with someone who is just a bit better at the activity. I love the idea that working together at varying levels of understanding requires students to "organize their thinking about talk about what they are trying to accomplish" (49). This makes me wonder about the reading groups I've seen set up at local schools, however. They seem to be set up by reading level...stronger readers with stronger readers, weaker readers with weaker readers. Is this the best approach? I hope to learn more about that.